My Swing (NeedAJoker)

[NeedAJoker]

I've been Playing Golf for: 2-3 Times a year for 10 years, this season was my first season taking golf serious, played about 40 rounds and hit the range ~75 times.  
My current handicap index or average score is: 18 HI, Shot 91-92 10+ times this season but never got over the hump.
My typical ball flight is: Swing has been changing constantly all summer, started as a typical hacker slice, moved to a bit straighter with my miss largely being a straight dead pull or occasionally small push.  Very inconsistent.
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: My best ball contact(feel) seems to be on my dead pulls, I have eliminated the slice mostly with all but Driver.  

My main priority pieces I have worked on eliminating this year are to 1) Stop Flipping and 2) Minimize Lateral shift back.  I think I made strides in both, but I can see in my FO video I still am flipping at the ball so I need to fix that.  I am really curious about my swing plane and if that is remotely correct, as well as my weight shift and shoulder turn.

I installed a full golf simulator in the garage for this off season so if there are any drills or things I can focus on all winter that would be great.  I appreciate any responses or help in advance.

Kevin

FO:

DTL:

Edited October 27, 2015 by iacas
embedded videos

[NeedAJoker]

I'm a dummy and can't figure out how to embed the videos so I apologize.

Edited October 27, 2015 by NeedAJoker

[iacas]

I'm a dummy and can't figure out how to embed the videos so I apologize.

Just put the video URLs on their own line.

I'll try to look at the swing later.

[mvmac]

I've been Playing Golf for: 2-3 Times a year for 10 years, this season was my first season taking golf serious, played about 40 rounds and hit the range ~75 times.  
My current handicap index or average score is: 18 HI, Shot 91-92 10+ times this season but never got over the hump.
My typical ball flight is: Swing has been changing constantly all summer, started as a typical hacker slice, moved to a bit straighter with my miss largely being a straight dead pull or occasionally small push.  Very inconsistent.
The shot I hate or the "miss" I'm trying to reduce/eliminate is: My best ball contact(feel) seems to be on my dead pulls, I have eliminated the slice mostly with all but Driver.  

My main priority pieces I have worked on eliminating this year are to 1) Stop Flipping and 2) Minimize Lateral shift back.  I think I made strides in both, but I can see in my FO video I still am flipping at the ball so I need to fix that.  I am really curious about my swing plane and if that is remotely correct, as well as my weight shift and shoulder turn.

Yeah I would focus on turning the hips more in place. Feel I'll recommend, turn the right hip up and AROUND. Drill you can do at home is to set-up with your trail hip close to a wall and make backswings creating some space between your hip and the wall. Take note of how it feels and use that feel when you practice.

Also turn both feel out at address, will help with the pivot.

 

More info and drills here.

[NeedAJoker]

Thanks Mike, that will be my main priority piece for the time being and I will upload another video when I feel like I have it dialed in a bit more.  Thanks so much.

 

[NeedAJoker]

I don't have a new video to post, but I did have my first lesson in my winter series last night, and my coach said my hip turn is much more centered as that has been my main focus all of November.(THANKS @mvmac)  

My new thing to work on this week before next Friday's lesson, is getting a flat left wrist at the top of my backswing and reduce(eliminate) my cupping.  My lessons are only 30 minutes, so I only had a few shots to practice, but the feel when I got it flat was amazing.  I can't wait to work on this more and will update with video and some SkyTrak shot dispersion once I get this next tip down.

No bueno:

Kevin

[Abu3baid]

Can I ask a question?  Did he tell you why he wants a flat left wrist at the top?  

[collapse]

Has it been said by any instructor you have a serious chicken wing going on?....that must be the 120 ball bucket...well done.

[NeedAJoker]

I don't remember verbatim but it had to do with my club face manipulation and it kinda being "wobbly" at the top and allowing my wrists to hinge too much the wrong way with the club dropping below horizontal behind my neck/head.  He mentioned someone like Dustin Johnson has an incredibly bowed left wrist at the top.  I also read that Hogan had a cupped left wrist, but he could manipulate it on the downswing to get the clubface back where he wanted it, something I assume I won't be able to do.

Here is something I found with Faldo/Woods/DJ, that pretty much says you can effectively make all three orientations work if you are good enough to compensate, which I am not.  

Maybe Mike or someone can clarify why it is important(or link to something I am sure they have already discussed in great detail in another thread).

Kevin

[collapse]

This is the chicken wing..

[NeedAJoker]

Absolutely, add it to my list of pieces to solve.  I have another thread going without the swing analytics showing my current progress with ball flights and showing my incredible lack of consistency so I will keep updating that with results, and this thread with the vids/pics as I work through each issue.

Appreciate everyone's input and help, can't wait to see how my swing keeps evolving over the winter.

I love the challenge!

Kevin

[collapse]

2 minutes ago, NeedAJoker said:

Absolutely, add it to my list of pieces to solve.  I have another thread going without the swing analytics showing my current progress with ball flights and showing my incredible lack of consistency so I will keep updating that with results, and this thread with the vids/pics as I work through each issue.

Appreciate everyone's input and help, can't wait to see how my swing keeps evolving over the winter.

I love the challenge!

Kevin

Take note of MVMAC left elbow and his hand rotation position compared to yours.

[iacas]

43 minutes ago, collapse said:

This is the chicken wing..

It's also perhaps not the priority at all right now.

I've said before, and I'll say again now… it's relatively easy for someone to name the 11 or 27 or 5 things they don't like in their golf swing. One of the tricks, one of the things that separate even great instructors from good ones, is proper prioritization.

Often (and I haven't looked back at this thread to know if it applies here), what you see as a problem is actually the result of something else earlier in the swing, and so you can be mislead into fixing the wrong thing, or worrying about the wrong picture.

[NeedAJoker]

I agree Erik, and I will do my best to stay disciplined with my priority piece, but do not mind people pointing out other things that I can come back and address later.  I know I have a ton of things to get squared away earlier in my swing, so hopefully as you mention, that will correct some things later as well.

Kevin

[mvmac]

@NeedAJoker, yeah keep focusing on the hip turn. 

With the left wrist, looks to me like the right arm is too bent and that will effect on the left wrist. The hips swaying can also cause the arms to get "bunchy".

3 hours ago, collapse said:

Take note of MVMAC left elbow and his hand rotation position compared to yours.

Thanks for the vote of confidence but that's Jared Hack, player on the Web.com Tour.

[NeedAJoker]

I apologize to anyone reading my other thread as this is going to be a lot of the same.  My goal was to keep the technical stuff here, and everything else there, but it seems to be redundant so I will have to figure out if I should do both or drop one. Mods if you have any input let me know.  

Regardless, the past 9 days seem to be some of the biggest strides I have made thus far in my swing.  It is crazy to me how a few little changes can really bring the picture all together at once.  Now that my hip turn is a bit more centered, eliminating the cupped left wrist has absolutely changed everything.  I am really surprised as I feel like with all the reading I have done here, golf channel, etc, I haven't seen a lot about cupped left wrist and what impact it seemingly has on everything, but that is likely just my misinterpretation, or potentially its just not a problem a lot of people have.  It certainly was the "click" so far for me at this stage in my swing, and the results feel nothing short of amazing(for a 19hcp).  

I won't repost all the stats and numbers, they are in the other thread if you are interested, but I will post the two ball flight pictures.  In the first picture(Dec 1st) you can see the inconsistency, with two snappy hooks, 3 or 4 big cut/slices, and maybe 1 or 2 draws.  In the second picture(from today), it isn't amazing, but the ball flight is so much better, with only 1 or 2 playable fades, and the rest a draws with a few loose ones.  On top of that, I feel like I am swinging at 80%, where before I felt like I was swinging out of my shoes, but the contact wasn't there so I was still struggling to get distance.  This resulted in nearly 15 yards gained with the average going from 118 to 133, once again, swinging "easier".

I am happy as can be and am so excited to groove this and start working towards the next priority piece.  As soon as I can get some better lighting in my sim area, I will get some updated videos.  Thanks everyone for the help!

Dec 1st:

Today:

Kevin

[NeedAJoker]

So in working on the above flat left wrist at top, I uncovered a new problem.  See in the pictures below, that my shaft at the top is pointed WAY "across the line" I think it is called?  In most of the pro videos DTL, it seems like the shaft almost disappears as it is almost pointing straight away from the camera, which makes sense as the camera is pointed DTL, and therefore the shaft is close to DTL also.  

Are there any feels or drills for this?  Just more mirror/video work to get it grooved? Feel like I am shortening my backswing? 

I want less this(I know I am still cuppy at the top here, but it was pretty flat until the club started dropping behind my head. Maybe that answers my question, keep it really flat and it won't cross the line?):

And more this:

Thanks,

Kevin

[collapse]

Isn't that Jordan Spieth?? He is known for a slightly bowed wrist.